Youth Team Sports Participation Associates With Reduced Psychopathology Via Interaction With Biological Risk Factors
Key findings
- This study assessed how polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for eight major psychiatric disorders and brain MRI structural data mediated the relationship between sports participation and psychopathology in 9,638 children who were 9-10 years old
- Participation in team sports, and not individual sports, was significantly associated with a better total score on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (β=20.93; Cohen's d=0.083; P=0.00016); on subgroup analysis, there was no significant effect in girls
- Associations of team sports participation with psychopathology were strongest among children with more lifetime exposure to team sports, consistent with a "dose effect"
- PRSs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, and major depressive disorder were associated with CBCL scores, but team sports mitigated only the relationship between psychopathology and the polygenic risk score for ADHD
- Team sports participation and lower CBCL score were each associated with increased subcortical volumes on MRI scans, and total subcortical volume mediated 5.5% of the effect of team sports on CBCL score
Physical activity is a potentially modifiable influence on mental health outcomes in children, especially depressive symptoms and anxiety. A report in PLOS One based on data from the longitudinal, multicenter Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study linked participation in team sports to a significant reduction in a range of psychopathologies after controlling for numerous potential demographic confounders.
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Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have made a firmer case for causality by triangulating the association with underlying biological mechanisms. They tied team sport participation to reduced effects of polygenic risk on psychopathology. In turn, that relationship was mediated by volume differences in subcortical regions that were associated with increased risk.
Keiko Kunitoki, MD, instructor in the Department of Psychiatry, Joshua L. Roffman, MD, MMSc, director of the Mass General Early Brain Development Initiative, and colleagues report the details in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science.
Methods
The ABCD Study follows 11,875 children, enrolled at 22 U.S. sites, from ages 9 and 10 through early adulthood. This analysis reviewed baseline data on:
- The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), which measures youth dimensional psychopathology during the preceding six months; the total score was the primary outcome in this analysis
- Reponses to a questionnaire about sports and other activities, categorized into team sports, individual sports, and nonsports activities (art, music, etc.)
- Whole-brain MRI
- Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for each individual were generated using genome-wide genotype data from individuals of European ancestry; scores were calculated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, anorexia nervosa, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder (MDD), obsessive–compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome
Principal Findings
9,638 participants had complete data. Key observations were the following:
- Of the three types of activities, only team sports participation was significantly associated with a lower (better) CBCL total score (β=20.93; Cohen's d=0.083; P=0.00016)
- Team sports participation was significantly associated with lower CBCL scores among boys but not girls
- CBCL score gradually decreased as activity-year of exposure to team sports increased (β=20.27; P<0.0001), indicating a "dose response"
- PRSs for ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and MDD were associated with CBCL scores, but team sports mitigated only the relationship between ADHD PRS and psychopathology
- Team sports participation and lower CBCL score are each associated with increased subcortical volumes on MRI scans, and total subcortical volume mediated 5.5% of the effect of team sports on CBCL score
Interpreting the Results
The findings in this study could reflect the synergistic social, psychological, and physical benefits of team sports. Previous work has suggested team sports are more beneficial than individual sports because participants experience social support and acceptance, more self-esteem, and less body dissatisfaction.
Even though the effect size for the association between team sports and CBCL score was small (Cohen's d=0.083), the population-level impact could be substantial, considering the relatively low costs of sports "interventions."
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